How Men Look
William Stern, his article ventures in research on the male species, a discussion of how focusing on men appearance, is subversive because of the belief that men act while women appear. Stern analyzes the various instances where masculinity coding is only through visual means and not inherent in the physiology of the male body. According to Stern, "not one author took the naked (male) body itself as being emblematic of masculinity" (page 56); description, notions, and opinions about masculinity always through attributes, attenuations, and attitudes thus a social construction of universality and objectivity.
Studying Masculinity in Books about Girls
In this article, Hellen Harper through female protagonists explores the nature and performance of masculinity portrayed in mainly the adolescents. Harper describes gender identity as stylized performance, that through social regulations, it is prone to change; this, therefore, explains masculinity as a performance by anyone and not the exclusive purview of the male body. According to the author basing on the many kinds of literature where female characters portray acts of masculinity, there is wealthy and exciting reworking thus providing a compelling glimpse of how masculinity is a successful social construction. Harper states that "the best place to find masculinity is the least visible, not with men at all, but with women" (page 80). There are significant discrepancies with regards to clothing, female to male cross dressing that tends to be successful whereas the male to female crossdressing in unsuccessful and comically deployed; these discrepancies according to the author depict gender constructions.
